The Tribe of Dappled Sunlight
by Mo0ngazer
Summary: Every story has a beginning. Every story has an end. This is the story of the end of the beginning, and the beginning of their end.
1. The Tribe

_**Deep in the Jungles of Central America, the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight is forced to make a horrible choice when the first twolegs they have ever seen begin to destroy their home; will they stay in the forest where their ancestors first found a home after their long journey, or will they flee, never to see their home again? The story is centered on three to-bes, Raindrop, Pounce, and Eddy; Raindrop is the main character. Please don't forget to review!! **_

_**Allegiances**_

_**The Tribe of Dappled Sunlight**_

**Healer**: _Teller of the Leaf-dappled Moonlight (Leafteller) – _A deep red she-cat with white flecks and sky-blue eyes  
**Trainee**: _Windteller _

**Branch-guards**:

_Rock beneath Rushing Waterfall (Rock) _– Gray tabby tom

_Mist of Silver Lake (Mist)_ – Young auburn she-cat with silver markings

_Leap of Joyful Squirrel (Leap)_ – Young, pale auburn she-cat

_Flight of Cawing Raven (Raven)_ – Surly black tom with green eyes

_Thunder of Rolling Storm (Thunder) _– Fierce, dark gray tom with paler stripes

_Ivy of Tangled Jungle (Ivy)_ – Blue-gray she-cat with deep green eyes

_Hiss of Striking Python (Python)_ – Gray-brown tabby tom

_Dragonfly that Skims Low Over the Water (Dragonfly)_ – Dark, ginger striped tom

_Clouds on a Blue Moon Night (Cloud) _– White she-cat with dark blue eyes

_Sunset on Wintry Treetops (Sunset)_ – Golden tabby she-cat

**Prey Hunters:**

_Dewdrops of Summer Morning (Dewdrop) _– Lithe, silver-gray tabby she-cat with white speckles

_River beneath Starry Sky (River)_ – Silver blue she-cat with white markings

_Wind on Grassy Meadow (Wind)_ – Red-gold she-cat with white markings

_Wing of Cawing Toucan (Wing)_ – Glossy black she-cat with orange eyes and white markings

_Shadow of Stalking Panther (Shadow)_ – Moody, dark ginger tom

_Rush of Tumbling Waterfall (Rush) – _Silver she-cat with white markings

_Vines above Quiet River (Vines) _– Gray and brown striped tom with white markings

_First Blossom of Springtime (Blossom) – _Cream and white she-cat with blue eyes

_Spider web in Sunlit Treetops (Spider) _– Pale orange she-cat with black markings

_River beneath Starry Sky (River)_ – Silver blue she-cat with white markings

**To-Bes**_**:**_

_Eddies of Rushing River (Eddy) – _Pale auburn tom with red stripes and amber eyes (prey-hunter)

_Night of Summer Moonlight (Night) – _Black she cat with white patches and markings (prey-hunter)

_Bark of Growing Tree (Bark) – _Brown tom with red stripes and green-brown eyes (prey-hunter)

_Pounce of Stalking Leopard (Pounce) – _Energetic brown tabby she-cat with white markings and green eyes (prey-hunter)

_Monkey Chattering in Grove (Monkey) _– Red-brown striped tom (branch-guard)

_Fire of Burning Brushwood (Fire) – _Rusty red-orange tom (branch-guard)

_Raindrops of Summer Storm (Raindrop) – _Deep auburn she-cat with darker red stripes and white markings and stormy purple-blue eyes (branch-guard)

_Firefly beneath a Summer Sky (Firefly) – _Ginger she-cat with orange stripes and yellow eyes (branch-guard)

_Teller of the Whispering Wind (Windteller) – _A pale gray tom with white patches and markings (healer)

**Kit mothers: **

_Blue Sky after a Storm (Sky) – _Silver she-cat with white markings and sky blue eyes

_Ripples on Starlit Lake (Ripple) _– Pale silver she-cat with thin white stripes

_Feathers of Soaring Hawk (Feather) – _Auburn she-cat with brown and white stripes


	2. Chapter 1: Starry Sky

_**Chapter 1: **_**Starry Sky**

Raindrop walked slowly through the branches of the Jungle, glancing over her shoulder every so often to make sure she wasn't being followed. The bars of moonlight slid across her pelt, making it shimmer beneath the canopy of leaves whose top she was coming dangerously close to. She knew it was against the rules to be above the canopy, but her curiosity was too much for her; she _had_ to see the sky.

As a member of the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight, she was a young to-be, and her liability to get in trouble was thus higher. But also, she was a branch-guard to-be, and so she could go more places than the prey-hunter to-be's, like Pounce, or Eddy; higher in the trees, and lower towards the forest floor. She was a beautiful deep auburn color, with thin stripes of darker red, and white markings. Her withdrawn disposition did not make friends, but she was of an independent spirit anyway.

Raindrop was about to clear the top of the trees. She looked around one last time, and then she jumped up to the last branch and thrust her head out of the tree.

And gasped.

* * *

The Tribe of Dappled Sunlight was a well-organized tribe of cats where the leader of their group was also a medicine cat, the Healer, and everyone was born into their position. There were many, many cats in the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight then; the tribe healer, Leafteller, was currently training the next healer, Windteller, and the kit-mothers had many kits that would begin training soon; it was a time of good fortune for the Tribe.

The Tribe's camp was a huge tangle of vines and leaves and branches in the middle of the jungle where they lived, and even here, their home, they were stalked day and night by leopards and snakes, all the while hanging in their huge, green hammock, thousands of tail-lengths above the forest floor, where they were also forbidden to go.

Being well-organized was how they put it, but any cat who had grown up outside of a tribe would have found it rather restricted; you didn't choose your fate as prey-hunter or branch guard, the rules of where you could go, like above the canopy or onto the forest floor, were strict and forcefully backed up, and no matter how great a leader a cat was, or could be, only the trainee of the Healer would ever lead them.

Nevertheless, Raindrop thrust her head out of the top layer of leaves. Her eyes grew wide as she stared up at the beautiful sky that she had never fully seen.

* * *

The deep blue sky was a dark and infinite dome above her, the edge of the horizon glowing with the light of the sun that had just set. The endless vault of glowing blue was sprinkled with stars that glittered and sparkled like dewdrops, and the moon, nearly full, glowed silvery and serene. All the light from the dark sky above gilded the canopy with white-blue moonlight, and the mountains that thrust their peaks into the open sky were bathed in glowing starlight. A few streaks of purple cloud arched above the Jungle, and huge black birds circled above their prey, wheeling and gliding in complete silence as the forest below echoed with the calls and chirps of nighttime.

Raindrop stared, stunned at the beauty of what she wasn't even supposed to see, wondering how they could refuse to let their cats see the splendor of the sky... it had been something like, oh... Raindrop struggled to remember why she wasn't allowed up here, and found herself wondering if she had never been given a reason at all. Then she remembered.

A bone-chilling shriek suddenly broke the serene quiet that had hung around Raindrop. The birds of prey! That was why she wasn't supposed to be up here! And those circling birds above her—

With a cry, a huge black raven broke away from his circling flock, and the rest of them followed, diving straight for Raindrop. She squeaked in terror, and plunged under the leaves of the canopy. The birds' claws slashed the leaves under which Raindrop crouched, shaking, as they dove at their prey. Raindrop tried to stay quiet as she began scrambled frantically down the branches of the towering tree. But in her panic, a crack rang through the night air as she stepped on dead branch, and it snapped beneath her.

With a screech of terror, she lost her footing, and she was dangling by her front paws over a drop that was so far down that the bottom was only blackness. The world seemed to spin around her, and the abyss of darkness seemed to be pulling Raindrop down into its depths. She gasped, terror enveloping her like a heavy cloud.

The birds burst through the top of the canopy, shrieking, feathers and leaves raining down on their prey. Raindrop squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to claw her way back onto solid branch; she lifted a hind paw and sank her sturdy claws into the bark of the tree, and scrabbled for a hold with her other foot. Gasping for breath, she clambered onto the branch, her heart pounding wildly in her ears. The flock of ravens was bobbing around the branches, cawing and shrieking, searching for their lost quarry.

Creeping slowly along a leafy branch, Raindrop tested each step before going on; it was a lesson that the branch-guards, mostly Mist, though, had been trying to teach her for a long time, and that she finally appreciated now. After what seemed like moons, the cries of the flock of ravens faded into the distance. Shaking, Raindrop looked around to see where she was.

A beam of moonlight fell through the branches of the canopy above her, and there were less leaves in the top layer of branches, so that she could see the sky from where she was. Raindrop gazed at the starry heavens as they rose above her, and wished that she too could soar above the Jungle, among the flocks of birds and with the stars around her. With a sigh, she turned and started walking towards the edge of the Jungle, from where she would be able to find her way back to camp.

Suddenly a scent caught her attention.

"_Raindrop!_" snarled a furious voice.

It was Mist.


	3. Chapter 2: Rain and Mist

_**Chapter 2:**_** Rain and Mist**

Raindrop stood, shaking and scratched, as her tribemate, Mist on Silver Lake, glared at her, stalking angrily down a nearby branch. The young silver tabby she-cat's blue eyes were flashing, and Raindrop could see that the branch-guard had followed her all the way there: a black downy feather was stuck to her left hind ankle-- a raven's feather.

"What were you _thinking_, climbing up there?!" snarled the she-cat furiously without any pretense. "The ravens could have caught you, or you could have fallen down to the forest floor-- what kind of _mousebrained_ idea was that?!" The spitting branch-guard glared extra angrily at the to-be, as she was Raindrop's self-appointed trainer. All the cave-guards were supposed to teach all the to-bes, but usually one cat would be the one who spent the most time training each one; Raindrop's 'mentor' was Mist.

Raindrop hung her head, but inside her chest, her heart still pounded with exhilaration. She wasn't going to regret her adventure. The sound of the ravens' and the feeling of dangling thousands of tail-lengths over the forest floor still filled her mind, and her pounding heart was making her senses feel supercharged.

Mist looked expectantly at her to-be. "Raindrop?" she asked blankly. Raindrop lifted her head, and glared at Mist. She wasn't about to regret anything, she knew she had outsmarted the ravens, she knew now that she was strong enough to make it out of the understory alive; she was stronger than any of the branch-guards ever had been; _they'd _never reached the canopy. Mist stared at her, and her face fell.

"I tried to train you, Raindrop," she sighed, lowering her head and shaking it. "But you wouldn't listen. I guess all I can do is to wish you luck finding another branch-guard that'll put up with you." Raindrop stared, stunned, as her trainer, or rather, simply tribemate, walked off.

Raindrop gaped, dumbstruck, all her proud and superior feelings evaporated. Her trainer was abandoning her! Not—not that Mist was the only cat who trained her; all the branch-guards shared the responsibility of teaching the next generation of cats—but still! Mist was just _deserting _her!

"No—Mist—_wait_!" The words got caught in her throat, and Raindrop choked them out, launching herself after the branch-guard with a gasp; Mist ignored her former to-be. "Hang on! Wait up! Please! You're not going to—to—_tell _Leafteller, are you? No—no, please don't! I'll be—I'll be... better! I already know to—to—" Mist whirled around.

"Alright, _fine,_ I won't tell them—anyone!" spat the branch-guard. "But you had better hope you can come up with a good story to explain your lack of _trainer,_ because there is _no way _that I'm going to cover for you this time, or even _be_ your trainer anymore! I'm sick and tired of your defiance and ridiculous—_mousebrained—" _Mist seemed to be too angry to even speak. She whirled around and stalked away, her young pride wounded. She was hardly more than a to-be herself, but she was a spirited young cat, and she had wanted very much to train someone; Raindrop was not what she'd had in mind.

Raindrop felt anger flare inside her—it was just like she was arguing another to-be, and even though she was generally a withdrawn sort, her arguments were fierce, and backed up with tooth and claw, if necessary. Gaping at the figure of her former mentor, Raindrop decided she wasn't going to give up that easily. With a grim expression, she launched herself through the branches after the silver branch-guard. Mist and Raindrop were both exceptionally stubborn, persistent, proud, sometimes arrogant, and both powerful fighters; they could have been sisters. But they also had many heated disagreements, but this was worse than usual, and Raindrop knew it was serious; Mist was _seething. _

Raindrop darted nimbly through the branches after Mist's silhouette. A cloud drifted over the moon, and she glanced up. A huge raindrop landed on her nose; she blinked and snorted it away. A thin mist was settling on the forest, and now she could hear rain pattering on the canopy above as it protected them from the storm. When she looked back, Mist had disappeared.

* * *

A little while later, Raindrop was sitting in camp, chewing on a mouse, and glaring around at every cat; no one asked to Share with her. Rain still pattered on the canopy, high above their twisted hammock of vines and branches, the occasional drop falling through and landing on one of the tribe cats. Raindrop was sitting next to the to-bes' den, and from outside, she could hear two cats Sharing prey, but she was too moody and wet to bother to find out who they were. The shroud of mist had thick become thick and heavy, and Raindrop could just barely make out the figures of her tribemates.

Raindrops of a Summer Storm watched as the cats of the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight moved around her; the kit-mothers watched sleepily as their kits chased each other around the nursery; two branch-guards watched the entrance to camp; by the fresh-kill pile, prey was Shared by a few to-bes; and at the entrance to camp, two prey-hunters, two branch-guards, and two to-bes filed in, carrying a lot of prey: a hunting group.

The to-bes were Pounce and Eddy, cousins, both prey-hunters, and both bursting with pride at their catches; a blue bird, and a raccoon as big as Eddy. Chattering excitedly, Pounce bounced around her rather calmer cousin while he carried his raccoon to the large fresh-kill pile.

Eddy was a quiet, pale auburn tom with red-brown stripes, white paws, and amber eyes, while his energetic cousin and good friend, Pounce, was a brown she-cat with white markings and green eyes. Raindrop felt jealousy stab at her insides; she had no friends, no cousins, _nobody_ to talk to, to turn to... she had had Mist once, maybe, but now that stubborn branch-guard was just _leaving_ her...

"Raindrop?" said a voice above her. "D'you want... did you already eat some... fresh-kill?" she looked up. It was Eddy. He was holding the bird that Pounce had caught, and looking very awkward, while Pounce hovered rather uncomfortably behind him. Raindrop shook her head.

"Told you," muttered Pounce.

"What?" asked Raindrop, sitting up and glaring unpleasantly at the prey-hunter.

"It was his idea," Pounce nudged her cousin. "He said you looked... like..." she trailed off.

"Alright, I was trying to cheer you up," said Eddy, his calm, kind spirit, and nearly nonexistent pride, not letting him get angry. "You looked pretty... down. Is that so horrible?" Pounce peered at Raindrop, nodding in agreement with Eddy now that she could see he wasn't angry.

"Oh yeah?" Raindrop's bad temper after her disagreement with Mist flooded out over the unwary cousins, and she spat angrily. "I don't need any cat's _pity, _I'm not some kind of _kit, _I don't want your stupid _bird, _and I'd bet your _mousebrains_ that you'd much rather be ignoring me than offering me some _fresh-kill, _you two—you—" but Raindrop was suddenly lost for words; all the anger she had felt flaring inside of her vanished like mist in sunlight. She hung her head. Eddy and Pounce did look as if they wanted to run away, but Raindrop shook her head, suddenly ashamed. "No thanks, I already ate." She mewed hoarsely.

The two prey-hunters exchanged looks, and Eddy nodded to Raindrop, who looked away, thoroughly embarrassed. _Where did that outburst come from? _Raindrop thought, mortified, burying her face in her paws.

The rain pattered on the leaves above them, the occasional drop reaching their camp, and soon Eddies of Rushing River and Pounce of Stalking Leopard had disappeared from view, walking straight into the swirling mist, and vanishing.


	4. Chapter 3: Whispers

**_Chapter 3: _Whispers**

Raindrop plodded into camp, dropped the raven that Dewdrop had caught onto the fresh-kill pile, and slunk off. It was the day after her quarrel with Mist, and they were both ignoring each other. Mist had been in her hunting group, and Raindrop had not even tried to talk to her; the branch-guard had paid her no attention either. Mist's sister, Leap of Joyful Squirrel, had gently taken on training Raindrop by asking her to join the hunting group and reminding her of the various chores she had had to do for the past day.

She left the prey in the fresh-kill pile alone; Raindrop knew that none of the to-bes liked her, and as she had already been told off for not sharing the night before, she couldn't eat anything until... well, she'd have to figure that out sometime.

The rest of the hunting group filed in, damp from the smoggy, humid mist and drops of water from last night's storm that still glittered from every leaf. Mist dropped a squirrel that Dewdrop had also caught onto the fresh-kill pile before stalking off, Dewdrop herself contributed two mice, Wind dropped a couple of birds and a mouse onto the pile, and Pounce struggled along with a huge crow that she had found, _and_ _just barely managed_ _to_ _catch_, Raindrop thought irritably.

She turned and stalked off towards the to-bes' den. Around it were the to-bes of her tribe, all of them but Windteller; Raindrop's brother was probably in the Healer's den, learning or whatever; and Pounce, who was now carrying one of Wind's squirrels and a mouse over towards them. Raindrop glanced around, and realized with satisfaction that there was no one for Pounce to Share with; all the to-bes were either asleep, already eating, or busy talking. She would have to go _hungry_ tonight. Then suddenly Raindrop's sneer evaporated, to be replaced with something like horror; she was the_ only one left; _she would have to_ Share _with_ Pounce! _

With a grimace, Raindrop imagined eating something that Pounce had bitten—gross! She turned quickly, looking for someplace to hide; she'd sooner starve than Share with Pounce. But the prey-hunter's expression was already as horrified as Raindrop's; she too had noticed. Their eyes met. Raindrop glared and started towards the den.

"Hey—Raindrop—wait up!" Pounce cried frantically, shooting off after the branch-guard. "You have to—d'you wanna—Share...?" The small, fierce apprentice cringed under the look that Raindrop gave her as she bounced up.

"No," said Raindrop angrily, glaring furiously at the little to-be; _happy, cheerful, every cat loves her, what so great about an annoying little_— "No, I'm _not_ hungry, and I don't want to Share, go away."

"Aw, _please _can you Share with me, please, I'm really, really hungry, come on, Raindrop, or just _pretend_ you're Sharing with me, I'm _starving, _Raindrop, _please_,_" _she whined. "Please, you must be hungry, come on..." Raindrop just shook her head flatly, and started walking away again. "Well, what am I supposed to do? I can't eat _by_ _myself," _she dropped her voice to a deadly whisper, as if afraid of some cat hearing. "How 'bout you just _pretend_ you're Sharing with me, and then—"

"_Fine_," snapped Raindrop, finally deciding she might as well eat.

"Thanks _so_ _much,"_ Pounce gasped, sinking down to bite into the squirrel. She passed it to Raindrop, saying, "Here, pretend to take a bite," but Raindrop did rip off a piece of meat before passing it back. The exchange continued for a while Pounce chattered away, unconcerned by her companion's silence, and after a couple of minutes, Raindrop was just nodding, ignoring her, and thinking.

"... and Monkey said he was gonna beat me, but I got to the top first, but I didn't go past up to the canopy, like, under the sky, I mean, well, we're always under it, but still, I was like, _ha, Monkey Chatter, I beat your little tail off, you thought you would win, but so there, it looks like branch-guards _aren't_ stronger than prey-hunters, _and then, he was passing it off, like, _oh, my paw got stuck, you cheated, the rain was in my face, waah, nyah, _and... yeah." Pounce didn't seem to ever stop talking, and she spoke so fast that it was almost impossible to understand her, especially when her mouth was full. "Hey, you've been over the canopy, huh? Right? How was it? Did you get in big trouble? Is that why Mist on Whatever isn't training you anymore? Right?"

Raindrop nodded vaguely, not listening. "How was it up there? Huh? Did you see the moon? I only saw it once, and that was, like, a bazillion moons ago, through the leaves in this tree—how was it?" she pressed. Raindrop turned, resurfacing from her thoughts.

"How was what?" she asked blankly.

"The _canopy,"_ repeated Pounce emphatically. "You said you saw outside it! Like, over it! Remember—"

"I said_ what?" _demanded Raindrop, nearly spitting the squirrel on Pounce. "_What_?"

"I said, no, you said, because I asked," Pounce took a deep breath, and said very fast, "that you went up over the canopy, and Mist almost clawed your ears off, and now she won't train you, because you were such a bad little kitty. That's what you said—no, wait, I said that, and... And—you said yes, unless you were speaking monkey, and they nod to say no." Raindrop sprang up, looked around nervously, and then sat down again.

"Alright... I did, but you can't say a word, or you will _find yourself earless," _she growled into Pounce's ear. "_Understand_?" Pounce nodded meekly. "Okay," Raindrop nodded and sat down.

"Okay," agreed Pounce, instantly snapping back into chatter mode. "So then—"

"Cats of the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight," yowled a voice; Leafteller's. "Gather here, beneath sky and cloud, and trunk and leaf, and moon and sun, beneath the Gathering Branch. It is time to leave for a Telling."

"I completely forgot about the Telling tonight!" gasped Pounce. "D'you think we're going?"

"I don't know," mewed Raindrop, momentarily forgetting her irritation with Pounce's existence. "I probably won't, though; at least you stand a chance. Good luck with that; I'm going to go... _dispose _of the... bones. See you." Raindrop walked off, feeling a bit warmed up to the chatty tabby to-be without knowing it. She trotted over to the edge of camp as her tribe's Healer began to list off the cats that would be going with her to the Telling.

The edges of their camp were protected with an almost solid wall of brambles and vines, entwined to form an impenetrable wall around their camp. Raindrop leapt up onto a branch beside the wall, scrambled up the tree until she was above the barrier, and then she dropped the squirrel and mouse's bones over the edge. They fell slowly, twirling and spiraling until they were lost from sight. Raindrop felt dizzy as she watched them fall towards the forest floor she could not see.

After several heartbeats of staring down the shaft of darkness, Raindrop leapt down from the tree, sailing down past the trunk, wind whirling around her, and the thick swirling mist whooshing past. She landed lightly on the vines that formed the mat of her camp's floor, and trotted back towards the center of activity.

"...and the to-bes that will be coming with us are..." Leafteller was finishing. "Fire, Eddy... Pounce," Pounce squealed and careened forward to join her cousin, "and Raindrop."

Raindrop gasped. She was going? Of all the to-bes to choose... she whirled around to get to the camp entrance, or maybe the exit, and found herself face-to-face with Pounce's grin.

"You're coming!" she cried gleefully. "Me and Eddy are too!"

"Uh-huh," she said vaguely, glancing around, and not really listening, her method when in 'conversation' (listening to) Pounce.

"Hi, Raindrop," said Eddy, offering her a smile. "Feel... feel okay? Better?" Raindrop started to reply irritably, not wanting any cat's pity, but a familiar scent hit the roof of her mouth, and a voice said quietly,

"Its okay, Raindrop, he means well; don't claw him up," mewed her brother Windteller, the tribe healer to-be. "Eddy, Pounce," Windteller dipped his head towards the cousins.

He was a gentle young tom with gray patches on his fluffy white pelt, and he was just the sort to be a Healer, at least medicine-wise. His kind disposition was not unlike Eddy's, and he was a popular cat in the tribe for his compassion; every one thought he would make a great leader for their tribe.

Except him.

Only Raindrop had ever really heard him talk about it; a moon after he had been 'chosen' as the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight's next healer, 'Windteller' already had his doubts. He had admitted to his sister that he really didn't think he was ready to lead a tribe, ever.

"Seriously, I can only really do the _healing_ part," 'Whisper', as Raindrop called him, told her anxiously. "Every cat likes me, and I'm not sure I could ever do much more for them than... be just a sympathetic _healer; _the _medicine_ kind, not the leading kind."

Raindrop had never told him anything of this much significance, preferring to keep her thoughts to herself, but she did her best to reassure her brother.

"Okay," Raindrop sighed, turning back to Eddy and Pounce. "Yeah, I'm okay, thanks, Eddy. Whisper... how's... how's things?" He smiled, and suddenly Raindrop saw something crafty in his grin.

"You!" she cried delightedly. "You asked Leafteller to—to—" He grinned more widely, and Eddy and Pounce looked puzzled. "Thanks _so_ much!" purred Raindrop, winding herself around her brother.

"It's nothing," he grinned awkwardly. "C'mon, we're leaving."

* * *

The Jungle was full of nighttime sounds, calling birds, chirping crickets, croaking frogs... The river rushing by was a ribbon of silver under a deep blue sky, stars glittering coolly in the distance, and the occasional cloud drifting across the white-blue disk of the full moon. Beams of moonlight fell through the dense tangle of branches and vines, gilding the leaves in a silver glow. Raindrop led the other five to-bes, Eddy, Pounce, Windteller, and Fire, along the worn path of huge branches and fallen trees, towards the glow of the river that splashed in and out of sight behind the forest's snarl of leaves and ivy. The sky too was hardly visible except for splashes of darkness outlined in silvered leaves.

"Wow," remarked Pounce, breaking the heavy silence. "It's like you can already hear the Waterfall."

* * *

A thundering rush of thousands of tons of water falling into the misted pool too far below to see greeted them as they broke out of the Jungle's last wall of ivy and branches, approaching the forest floor. They had left the Understory not very long ago, and the sounds of their home already seemed muffled as they approached the forest floor. The group of cats pushed their way through the last layer of the Jungle, and then they were out.

The river was huge, bigger than Raindrop had ever imagined it, and while during the day, she could see that it was sluggish and brown, through the branches of her home, it looked different at night. It was dark enough for the brown color to disappear, and the moon illuminated every ripple as it reflected the night above them. Birds wheeled high above them, like little points of darkness against the dark expanse of what was the sky, and the soft, tall grass around the edge of the Jungle swished and whispered gently, under the thundering of the Waterfall.

Raindrop's eye's followed the river as it sparkled and splashed towards the end, getting faster... wait, the _end _of the river? What?

"There it is," mewed a cat. "The Cave of Dancing Moonlight is under there." _Of course! That's where the water fell off the edge,_ thought Raindrop, _and behind the Waterfall is the Cave..._

"This is the place," remarked Fire on Burning Brushwood, his rusty red-orange fur sparkling with moonlit water droplets. "I think," he added, glancing around; he was an older to-be than the rest of them, but he'd never been to a Telling before.

"Sure looks like it," agreed Eddy, nodding.

"Sure _sounds _like it," Pounce put in, thrusting her head into their conversation.

"Mmm..." said Raindrop vaguely, wondering how they'd managed not to hear that cat who'd pointed that out. She looked around, and realized that there _were_ no other cats around, other than the to-bes; the branch-guards and prey-hunters were standing a ways off with Leafteller.

"Did you hear that?" she muttered to Windteller.

"Yeah..." he breathed. "They—someone told us, but the others didn't hear. Did—you heard that cat tell us so—right?"

"Yeah," she hissed back, mystified.

"Fire! Raindrop! Pounce! Eddy! Windteller! All of you come here! It is time to make the Descent!"

* * *

A while later, the band of cats was standing below the Waterfall, on some rocks above silvery but shadowed pool. Fish were darting about in the water below, and a huge tumble of rocks made a good spot to stand while the last few cats came down. But the rocks were slippery, and the towering Waterfall left the pool in shadow, and the thunder from the tumbling rush of the falls filled their ears so they could hardly hear each other, and the mist was so thick and cold that they could hardly see each other. The Descent had been damp and frigid and slick, and now they waited for Leafteller to clamber down, shivering, colder and wetter than they had ever been in their lives; the Jungle was a humid place, where the constant rain was never colder than warm.

"Okay," said Leafteller, shaking herself until her fur was fluffed out. "Let's go. The moon is nearly at its highest point, but we don't need to be in the Cave until after moonhigh. Come."

They plodded along behind her, Raindrop regretting ever coming along with every step. She was cold and soaked and sore and tired, and she could hardly see a tail-length in front of her. Whisper was breathing heard, and she stayed beside him as they fell further and further behind, plodding towards the river's Crossing Place.

Suddenly it dawned on Raindrop how hard it must be for Windteller; he had no training in fighting or stamina, and his pads were still as soft as they had been in the nursery, because he scarcely left camp. The trees of the Jungle were as unfamiliar to him as the Cave of Dancing Moonlight was to her. With a sigh, she set her pace to match her brother's, thinking that maybe she didn't have someone to talk to like Pounce and Eddy, but at least she had Whisper, to talk to her, and to support.

* * *

"Here we are," mewed Leafteller, padding into the Cave of Dancing Moonlight and shaking her fur out. The rest of the group filed in behind her, shivering and shaking out their thin pelts. After the Descent, there had been few words exchanged between any of the tribe cats, and yet every time Raindrop listened to the Waterfall, she could hear swishing and whispering, like there were cats _in the Waterfall. _But every time she tried to listen _to_ them, they disappeared. It was like looking at the sun.

The Cave was not very big; just a few tail-lengths high, but light form the behind the Waterfall filtered in, throwing dancing patterns onto the smooth stone of the Cave of Dancing Moonlight. The whispering was louder here, and Raindrop strained her ears to hear it as Windteller scrambled into the Cave, panting.

"Hi," he said in a hushed voice, as if they were someplace where there was a sleeping elder, and if you spoke aloud you would get clawed; or as if the Waterfall could _hear them._

_But what if it can? _Thought Raindrop, suddenly shivering._ I can hear it, so why couldn't it hear me... _

"Cats of the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight," mewed Leafteller, her bright blue eyes sparkling in the dancing light. "We gather here this evening to speak with each other and the Tribe of Endless Hunting. We will begin by thanking the Tribe of Endless Hunting and our ancestors for leading us here, to the Jungle, and thanking them for another moon of good hunting."

"Thank you," murmured the gathered cats.

"Also..." Raindrop decided that this Telling business wasn't really all that great, and she was cold and wet and hungry, and so she began to wash herself.

That's when she heard them.

_Beware the prey that becomes the hunter..._

_What?_ She almost hissed her query out loud. Raindrop strained her ears to hear the whispering again.

_When the branches you guarded can no longer guard you, then the fish will snarl, and the cats must swim..._

"What?" Raindrop whispered out loud this time, looking around in fear. She knew she'd heard the Waterfall whispering again. But as she listened to the steady rush, focusing entirely on it, all she could hear was the murmur of the cats around her and its thunder.

"What's what?" asked a voice. Raindrop jumped, afraid that it was those voices again, but all she saw was Windteller's inquisitive face.

_Even a light wind can blow in rain and mist..._

Windteller gasped. "They're here!"

"Who?" demanded Raindrop, turning to face her brother. "_Who,_ Whisper?"

"It's those voices we heard in the... in the field outside the Jungle," he hissed in a deadly whisper.

"What are they say—"

_Water swirling, rippling, rising, leading the way... _

_"_—ing...?" she asked, looking around.

"'Water swirling, rippling—'" began Windteller, but Raindrop cut across him.

"I heard," she snapped. "Its like they only talk when you aren't paying attention, so—"

_And the mountains will whisper..._

"Those mountains?" hissed Windteller, looking indisputably _freaked_ _out. _What was going on?!

_And the blackness will swallow... _

Windteller gulped, and crouched low next to his sister, not even trying to answer the whispers anymore, but Raindrop could tell he was still listening closely.

"_What was that?"_ whispered someone. Raindrop nearly jumped out of her pelt, but turned to find herself facing Eddy's quizzical look.

_"What was what?"_ she hissed back.

_"Oh, you know what I mean," _replied Eddy._ "That whisperi—"_

_Thunder can tear with claws of silver... _

"Thank you, Tribe of Endless Hunting," murmured the cats around them.

"What's going on? I think I might have dozed off," Pounce thrust her head between theirs. "Eddy—why the alarmed-ness?" It was true, Eddy _did_ look stunned, and slowly he turned to face Raindrop and Windteller.

"I—I heard that v—voice a couple nights ago. Asleep; A dream. They said the same thing, and—I—I think they meant you, Windteller," he mewed, looking rather dazed. Windteller's eyes widened. "'Follow the whispers'? Doesn't that sound like—you know—"

"Yeah," said Raindrop, nodding and turning slowly to look at Windteller. "Yeah, that sounds—that makes sense."

A huge crashing roll of thunder suddenly roared outside the Cave, making all the gathered cats jump. Lightning flashed, illuminating streaks of rain as they were thrust down on billowing gusts of wind, like teeth in the silvery light.

Like claws. Silver claws.

۞


	5. Chapter 4: Piranhas

_**Chapter 4: **_**Piranhas**

The moonlight lit the gray tabby fur of the old tom, and his tired amber eyes were growing dull with age, as white hairs flecked his muzzle. He gasped, his voice rasping, and he turned to the hulking figure beside him.

"Talon... Talon..." he whispered. "Co—come." The cave-guard turned, his scarred tabby face outlined in the fading light of the full moon.

"Yes, Stoneteller?" the cat named Talon murmured. "What is it? Are you—are you losing a life?"

"Yes," rasped the Healer. "It is my—it is my eighth. Talon, I will join the Tribe of Endless Hunting soon. Talon..."

"Stoneteller, you can't—there is no cat to succeed you!" Talon nearly cried out. "Who will lead us?"

"The—the Tribe of Endless... Endless Hunting has told me, warned me, sent me a... a sign," he croaked. "The one who will lead will... is coming... he will... she may... bring light to the cave... the waterfall will... whispering wind... falling rain...swirling rivers and silver mist... nothing is clear, Talon, nothing can be as... as before, and nothing... will change."

And then Stoneteller let out a last gasp, and beneath his tribemate's gaze, became limp one last time.

* * *

"Raindrop, concentrate!" even patient Leap was beginning to get irritated with Raindrop's lack of focus. "There is a flock of eagles attacking our camp, what are you going to do? What attack? What battle method?"

It was just past sunhigh, and they were standing outside the Cave of Dancing Moonlight. The gray rocks were just warming, as the scalding sun had barely cleared the towering waterfall above, but the shafts of sunlight that did fall made swirling patterns and sparkling rainbows in the heavy mist. The tribe cats at the Telling had awakened only a little while ago to find that the storm that had forced them to sleep in the Cave had finally rained itself out. A few, including the exhausted Windteller and the snoring Pounce, were still asleep, while Raindrop had awakened early, thinking about the whispers she had heard the night before.

What _could_ they have meant? 'The mountains will whisper'? 'Fish will snarl'? What in the name of—?

"Raindrop! I'm tired of you tuning out on me like that! I need your attention right here, right now," Leap was looking _really_ annoyed now. "Okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Raindrop mewed, nodding as she came back to earth, trying to restrain a grumble. "So... it's... the eagle defensive attack... thing? Right?"

"Yes," Leap nodded approvingly, "the 'eagle defensive attack thing'. Actually, it couldn't be a _defensive attack_, because that would be an oxymoron, so..." Leap trailed off, giving Raindrop a hard stare. It was like she was reading the to-be's mind. "You know, the rocks here aren't really right for this sort of battle practice," she said rather loudly. "Why don't you go find something to eat? We'll have a battle session later. As _soon_ as we get back to camp, no exceptions."

Raindrop's heart skipped a beat. "Seriously?" Leap smiled, and Raindrop beamed at her. She didn't miss Mist at all! Her sister was _way_ nicer, much more forgiving. "Thanks_ so _much! I'll be there on time, promise! Thank you!"

Leap laughed and grinned, waving her trainee away with her tail. "Oh, you're welcome. Go catch a fish or something."

* * *

The river tumbled by, frothing and spraying Raindrop with unexpected showers. She crept towards the bottom of the Waterfall, watching the tons of brown water thunder down into the lake-sized pool below_. _The water frothed and bubbled up, white foam instead of brown water, with thick mist swirling and rising from the base of the huge waterfall. Raindrop shook her head, droplets flew off her damp pelt around her, where they joined the billions of others spraying up, and she was soaked again within heartbeats.

Snorting some waterfall out of her nose, Raindrop trotted towards the shadowy tunnel that led into the Cave of Dancing Moonlight.

"Hey Raindrop!" called a voice. She turned and saw Wing, crouching by the riverbank nearby, sparkling droplets of mist caught in her black fur, her orange eyes glittering and her glossy tail twitching as Eddy's mentor hunted for fish. On her other side, a shadowy figure was facing Raindrop. The mist was swirling around so thickly that Raindrop couldn't tell who it was until he trotted up to her, grinning easily. "You want a fish?" asked Eddy.

"Uh—sure, if you think you can catch one," Raindrop mewed blankly, "before one catches _you," _she added with a bizarre grin worthy of Pounce.

"Oh, _really?" _Eddy purred. "You think I'm _that_ small?"

"No," laughed Raindrop. "You're just not aggressive enough!"

"Oh yeah?" Eddy said. "Let's see!" he launched himself at her, but Raindrop sidestepped him easily. Eddy rolled over to attack again, but Raindrop simply strode over and sat down on him. Squashed, Eddy tried to wriggle out, but Raindrop just grinned at her opponent.

"Alright," Eddy surrendered good-naturedly. "Now get off before my eyeballs pop out, why don't you?"

Raindrop laughed. "Sure! How 'bout that fish?"

* * *

The late afternoon sunlight fell in shafts of orange light, gilding the Jungle's leaves in an orange glow. Frogs croaked, crickets chirped, birds trilled, and distant monkeys chattered, their calls echoing eerily through the forest. Raindrop crept along a branch, glancing around occasionally, but not in a guarded way. Tonight, she was simply looking around. No sneaking off to be above the canopy, no storming off angrily, just sort of patrolling about; looking.

In the past half-moon, Raindrop had thought a lot about the whispers in the Cave of Dancing Moonlight. But no matter how much she racked her brain, looking for answers, nothing turned up. So by now, Raindrop had stopped trying to figure them out.

On of another note, she, Windteller, Eddy and Pounce had slowly become a close-knit group. Raindrop had forgotten her annoyance with Pounce for existing, and her resentment towards Eddy for trying to help her, and had since become good friends with them. Windteller, who had grown more nervous since the Telling, spent much more time talking to Raindrop, and she told him some things now, too. Life in general was going exceptionally well for Raindrop these days.

Only the whispers that nagged her in the back of her head when she slipped into her own thoughts were bothersome. And at night, Raindrop often had horrible dreams that she could never fully remember; only the whispers that fluttered around her ears, just out of reach, like the dreams she could never recall. With a sigh, Raindrop trotted forward along a thick branch.

She headed towards the river, where it wove through the forest, a ribbon of shimmering crimson beneath the setting sun. Raindrop could already see it through the leaves of the Jungle, and she was pretty sure she heard voices as she leapt down the branches towards the thin strip of pebbly riverbank. Wondering if Eddy or Pounce were there fishing, she trotted down off the last tree and shouldered her way through the tangle of vines that fenced in the Jungle. In the blazing fire of the setting sun, Raindrop blinked and looked around.

She had come out closer to the Waterfall than she'd meant to, and looking around, she saw that there were no prey-hunters talking. None fishing. There weren't any cats at all.

With a muffled gasp, Raindrop darted back into the Jungle, but it rustled and crackled as she tried to escape. Her heart pounding, Raindrop scrambled up into a sapling as a high snarling whine rose and echoed through the Jungle around her. The bird calls and cricket chirps faltered as the cry became a grinding screech. The hairs on the back of Raindrop neck rose and a chill ran down her spine. The eerie shriek rose and echoed around the Jungle.

Raindrop crept towards the sound to investigate with her ears flat back and her neck fur fluffed out. She was still shaking from fright at what she'd seen.

On the bank of the river, on the pebbly shore of the grassy field that marked the edge of the Jungle, towered two huge monkeys, their fur gone, their peachy skin covered with loose pelts of green and red, their paws gigantic, and their heads covered by hard yellow half-rocks. But even those things didn't scare Raindrop as much as she had been startled by what they carried. They were rusted orange and silver objects the size of Rock, the biggest cat in the tribe, with teeth as big as Raindrop's claws that growled and whined and snarled. Like... well, they looked a lot like _fish, _piranhas, to be exact; once, a fish as big as a kit had leapt out of the water, followed by a whole school, snapping at the fishing cats. She Pounce had fought most of them off, and with Eddy's help, managed to get them back into the river, with a few extra left to bring back to camp.

Piranhas were vicious, and rather toothy, and Raindrop was going do her best to avoid any more encounters with them; she still bore the scratches and tooth marks of the tussle with the monstrous fish. Now, seeing the towering furless monkeys carrying huge ones, she was scared out of her pelt; but she was Raindrop, so she naturally crept closer to investigate. Along the thick branches and through the sea of leaves, she slunk towards the horrid screech of the piranhas that the furless monkeys were carrying.

Finally, she darted out of the lower branches of a towering oak into a small copse of saplings, and crept towards the high-pitched grinding whine that howled through the forest and echoed in her ears. Fighting the urge to turn tail and run back to the tribe, she thrust her head through the last layer of leaves and vines.

With a gasp that tore at her throat, Raindrop's heart began pounding wildly at she saw.

The piranha was howling as it chewed through the trunk of a small tree, grinding and screeching and spitting out chunks of wood onto a pile of brushwood and saplings and branches that it had already gnawed to pieces, while a 'monkey' held it up and his companion covered his ears. The piranha shrieked triumphantly as the tree fell, and Raindrop squeezed her eyes shut, praying it was all just a dream. Suddenly, the tree she was crouching in began to shake, and the sound of the screeching piranha was all too close.

Raindrop's tree shook again, and then it began to fall.


	6. Chapter 5: Branches and Guards

_**Chapter 5: **_**Branches and Guards**

Raindrop stared, frozen in terror as her tree began to tip slowly towards the forest floor below. The piranha's grinding shriek tore at her ears as it chewed through the sapling that she was sitting in. Suddenly, she jerked back to reality with a yelp, as a branch from a tree above her fell, narrowly missing her head. With her heart pounding so hard it hurt, Raindrop bounded up through the branches of the sapling towards the larger trees as they fell away beneath her.

Every to-be knew that if a tree began to fall, for whatever reason, the best thing to do was to climb higher. Logically, that made sense: the top branches wouldn't be getting to the ground as fast as the rest of the tree, and the higher up you were, the easier it would be to reach another tree. Of course, no to-be had ever expected to be running from nutty fish-carrying monkeys that were eating the tree's trunk, but it was a good idea.

Raindrop leapt frantically through the branches of the falling sapling, twigs whipping back and clawing at her fur, half-drowning in the sea of leaves, her heat thumping in her throat. But she wasn't getting any higher: the tree fell away from beneath her faster than she could jump, and as it fell, it was taking her with it.

With a gasp, Raindrop broke through the last few leaves and leapt across the gap towards the trunk of the towering oak, the sapling crashing to the ground behind her. Raindrop soared through the air and landed hard against the oak tree's trunk, sinking her claws into the thick bark. Vines that snaked up the trunk strained and broke beneath her paws, and she began to slip down the damp bark. With a squeak of terror, Raindrop propelled herself forward and clawed up the tree, and, slipping and shaking, she grabbed the lowest branch and heaved herself onto it.

Trembling violently, Raindrop lay there for several long minutes as the sun set and the piranha yowled. The screeching whine finally stopped, and Raindrop stared as the furless monkeys strode out across the field and faded into the gathering darkness.

* * *

"Raindrop! How are you? I'm doing good, thanks, yeah, guess what I caught today? I caught an _eagle!" _Pounce bounded straight up to Raindrop as she slunk into camp, soaked from the evening's storm, covered in dirt and leaves. "Isn't that awesome? Right? You wanna know you I did it? Raindrop? You okay? Jeez! What the heck happened to you? Did you get attacked? Is there another panther around? Huh? Raindrop? Are you okay?" Raindrop looked her friend straight in the eye.

"No," she croaked.

"Well, jeez, Raindrop," mewed Pounce, looking perplexed, "spit it out! What happened to you?"

* * *

"...we must watch these monkeys closely, to see what they are planning." Leafteller looked around at the gathered tribe, who were all looking shocked at Raindrop's news. "A job as spy, shifts of two cats on duty watching the tree-killers, has been suggested, and permanent guards could be posted around the camp, or we could—"

"Do nothing and hope they go away?" someone called from the crowd.

"No," Leafteller mewed. "Wishing won't do anything. We have to act..."

"Personally," Pounce whispered, "I'm with the second guy. Why bother? What could we do?"

"We can't just give up," pointed out Eddy, leaning around Windteller, who nodded in agreement. "We should at least _try; _go down fighting, you know?"

"Who said anything about _'going down'_?" said Pounce, looking alarmed.

"Oh, you get the idea," Raindrop muttered, rolling her eyes.

The tribe murmured fearfully around them, their worried whispers like a light wind. The sun was beginning to rise in the east, filling the Jungle with a pink glow. Raindrop's eyelids were getting heavy, and she could feel herself drifting off, after a long, long, tiresome day. She yawned widely.

"Raindrop," said Leap's voice from behind her, "you should get some sleep." The to-be nodded blearily.

"M'kay," she mumbled, getting up. "See you guys," Raindrop added to her friends.

As the sun cleared the gray mountains in the distance, Raindrop trudging behind her trainer, the piranha's screech rose and echoed around the forest.

* * *

_Raindrop... Raindrop... Follow the whispers... _Raindrop struggled to hear, climb out of the abyss, towards the voices that echoed in the distance.

_Raindrop, look out! _

A pair of eyes appeared ahead of her, fire burning inside them. Raindrop started back, and she was falling, falling, falling...

"Raindrop! Wake—up—come on! R—Raindrop! Come on, w—wa— wake—up!" A paw was prodding her hard in the side: Pounce. "Wake—up—already! Raindrop-p!" Coughing and choking, the prey-hunter to-be collapsed on her side next to her friend. "Come on—Raindrop... W—wake—wake—wake up... c'mon..."

Raindrop pulled herself by her claws out of the dream, and while she could hear and smell everything, it was still really dark... Raindrop took a deep breath...

And choked it back out. The darkness was smoke. Thick, black smoke.

The Jungle was on fire.


	7. Chapter 6: Prey, Hunting

_**Chapter 6:**_** Prey, Hunting**

"Forest fire! Forest fire!" Windteller's yowl echoed through the thick smoke.

"Thanks for the update!" spat Raindrop, heaving herself onto her feet. Pounce lay motionless on the ground beside her. "Pounce, wake—_up_! P—Pounce—w—wake—wake up already!" The smoke was filling her lungs, and Raindrop could hardly speak. Pounce didn't move. "Pounce, come—on!"

Pounce rolled over and groaned. "Where—is it time to g—go?"

"Yeah, we're leaving," Raindrop choked with relief, grabbing her friend by the scruff. "C'mon, get—up—P—Pounce, come—on, get up already, let's g—go."

"M'kay, I'm coming. Can I just—ah, ah—_achoo_!" Pounce sneezed and spluttered onto her feet. Raindrop gasped and choked her way towards the den entrance, or rather the exit, her tail resting on Pounce's shoulder.

"Pounce! _Raindrop!" _Eddy careened over to them. "You—you're okay--?"

"Fine," she gasped. "Never been better!"

"F—found her," grunted Pounce, stumbling over to Eddy, "asleep. Where's Whisper?"

"O-over there," croaked Eddy. "W—we ought to get g—going, we're the l—last ones here."

"What's worth waiting for?" demanded Raindrop sarcastically.

"The service?" suggested Pounce with a cough.

"Whisper!" yowled Eddy. "We—we're going! C—come on!"

"Raindrop! Heh—help!" Windteller's cry sounded from across camp.

"Whisper!" Pounce yelped as if someone had bitten her. The three of them stumbled across the camp, gasping and choking through the smoke towards the sound of their friend's voice. The smoke was getting in their eyes and up their noses, clogging their throats and thoughts, until everything was just a black mass of darkness and smoke…

"R—Raindrop! Pounce! Eddy! H—_help_!" Windteller's screech cut into the swirling black shroud around them, and they realized they had been going the wrong way.

Turning, Pounce looked the other two in the eyes and said, "You two g-go ah-head. I'll g-get Whisper." Raindrop gave Pounce a look, but she didn't flinch. "I'll help him. Don't worry."

"Oh, o-okay," Eddy looked as perplexed as Raindrop felt, except she would act confused by getting irritated rather than spluttering. "We—we'll g-go to the river, and maybe—"

"The river?!" Raindrop gasped, choking spectacularly, but she spluttered on with growing fear, and so with a worsening mood. "_The branches aren't guarding us! 'The fish will snarl and the cats must swim'! _It's the whispers! The stuff they said at the Telling—" but Raindrop coughed uncontrollably, and slumped onto her side, wheezing.

"She's right!" Eddy gasped. "We have to stay with you, Pounce, and then go to the river! Whisper's near the entrance anyway!"

Pounce looked confused, but Raindrop spat at her, "don't ask!", and the confused to-be led them through the smoke towards their friend, Raindrop leaning on Eddy and hard.

Windteller was stuck in a hole in the camp's hammock of a floor as it smoldered near him. He looked panicked beyond sanity, and he was snarling and squeaking, trying to get free. The only thing he'd managed to do so far, though, was to get tangled even worse; both his legs were hanging beneath the vines, thousands of tail-lengths above the forest floor, and the charred, clawed vines around him creaking ominously.

With a wheezing squeak, Pounce dove forward and heaved him out of the vines, the flames nearby rising higher and crackling closer. Eddy and Raindrop stumbled forward and helped bite him free from the net, and finally Windteller scrambled up, coughing his thanks.

"Come on!" snapped Raindrop. "Look!" They all followed her terrified gaze, and suddenly the flames were right in front of them.

With yelps of fear, they sprang back, and suddenly the charred camp floor gave way beneath Pounce.

The vines snapped, and Pounce plunged down.

"_Pounce!" _yowled Eddy and Windteller. Raindrop dropped automatically onto her stomach and swatted down with her claws. They snagged the twisting and shrieking Pounce's scruff, and Raindrop dug her hind claws into the vines behind her. They twisted beneath her, and she held tighter to Pounce's scruff.

"A little help here?!" snarled Raindrop, slipping towards the hole; the two toms dove forward and pulled them up. Pounce twisted and yowled, and Raindrop spat and coughed and struggled to hold onto her friend as they pulled her up. Gasping from the second rescue, the three of them bounded out of the camp with the last scraps of their energy, away from the crackling flames as they consumed their home.

The four friends ran through the familiar branches of their home, the dry air full of smoke, their throats scalded, their fur completely black, their eyes dull, the last of their energy nearly gone. They were silent. They all headed towards the river, knowing where the fire had started, and hoping their tribe hadn't gone that direction.

The piranhas. Fish. _Prey_.

They were being hunted. And now there was nowhere for the tribe to go.

* * *

"There's the river."

Pounce's mew was a hoarse whisper. It was nearly midnight, and the river was a silver ribbon through the vines and trees of the forest. The smell of fire had followed them all the way through the Jungle, the hazy sun setting behind the mountains and the silence of night falling. Raindrop was really scared. Nighttime had never been silent before. The creatures of the jungle must have fled with the tribe. And the tribe: they still hadn't found it. There was no one but them in the forest. No one had spoken a word since they'd left camp.

Windteller's fur was covered in soot, his eyes were blank, and his tail singed. He still looked as terrified as he had when he'd nearly fallen through that hole, and when Pounce had plunged through the vines. Pounce's fur was fluffed out and her eyes were wide, and the usually chatty to-be was completely silent. She limped slightly as she bounded from branch to branch. Eddy was shaking, his fur singed and his jaw clenched. Raindrop had never seen him like this, grim and scared. Raindrop herself was the worst off: her fur was half burned off, scratched by the briars in their camp's floor, and one of her was eyes puffy and closed from a thorn that had whipped across it. It was hurting a lot, and smoke and dirt had gotten into it. If she'd asked Windteller, he'd probably have told her it was infected.

But she hadn't asked.

The shroud of nighttime had fallen behind the veil of smoke behind them, and the lost to-bes turned at the sound of the thundering river. They crept onto the shore warily, in case there were any piranhas or bald monkeys hanging around. The pebbles skittered loudly beneath their paws, and the sound of the river pounded their ears. The sky was hazy and orange, but the to-bes had gone so far upstream that they could no longer see the fire that had devoured their home. None of them recognized this part of the river.

"Lunch?" offered Pounce, dragging over a huge fish that stank of crowfood. Raindrop coughed and gave Pounce the eyebrow. "I'm _joking,_" sighed the prey-hunter to-be. "Sheesh, Raindrop. You're always so dang _serious. _Lightening up is sometimes occasionally a good idea!" Raindrop glared at her friend for a heartbeat. Then she exploded.

"Pounce, what are you _talking about?!" _shesnarled_. "_in case your brain hasn't processed it, the _Jungle is on fire! _We might be the last tribe cats still alive on this planet, and you're telling me to _lighten_ _up_?! What is _wrong_ with you?! I knew you were determined to be cheery at all times, but I didn't know you were this _shallow! _You, Pounce— 'Gee, we might die, and the forest is gonna burn down, and the piranhas are gonna eat us, and our tribe is burnt to a crisp, Raindrop, so, lighten up! It's sometimes occasionally a good idea!' _Sometimes occasionally?!_ Lighten up! Lighten up! We're gonna die, so lighten up! Is that what you're trying to say, Pounce?" Windteller cringed, and Eddy stared at Raindrop with something like horror. But Pounce walked right up to her fellow to-be and rose to her eye level, glaring.

"Yes," she hissed, "that's what I'm saying."

Windteller let out a muffled gasp and Eddy's eyes widened. Raindrop bristled.

"_Wha_—?!" she began angrily, but Pounce cut her off.

"Yes, Raindrop, _lighten_ _up_," she growled. "You are such an insufferable _pessimist, _you just always have to look at things from the _gloomiest_ possible perspective, and you're always _mad_ about _something, _and we're—just—_sick of it! _They—" Pounce jerked her head towards the toms, and Windteller flinched, "don't have the guts to say it, but they're fed up with it too! You. Need. To. _Chill." _Pounce whirled around and stalked off.

Raindrop stared after her, her mouth hanging open. She looked around and saw that the other two were staring at her. Windteller shifted his wide-eyed gaze to Pounce, his look one of stunned surprise. Eddy, however, gave Raindrop a long look before turning slowly and walking down the bank after his cousin.

Raindrop clamped her jaws shut and walked off towards the forest's edge, scowling.


	8. Chapter 7: Rippling Water

**_Chapter 7: _Rippling Water **

Raindrop opened her eyes, staring around. The Cave of Dancing Moonlight was full of cats, breathing slowly. Like a light wind behind the waterfall, whispers danced around her ears. She turned her head slowly and looked around.

Pounce was curled up on her side, snoring slightly; between Pounce and Raindrop, Eddy lay neatly curled up, his tail over his nose, his eyes wide open and staring straight ahead, thinking; and Windteller was on Raindrop's other side, curled in a tight ball, twitching nervously in his sleep.

Early the morning before, Raindrop had awoken to find the rest of tribe surrounding her and her friends. Together, they had journeyed along the river, out into the field, down beside the Waterfall, to the Crossing Place, and into the cave. After hunting they'd gathered for a Telling where they'd prayed to the Tribe of Endless Hunting to keep them from harm and guide them to wherever they might go.

While they'd slept, two scouts had gone out to see the forest—Monkey, who was the eldest to-be, and Sunset, had gone back into the Jungle to asses the fire's damage and see where it may have started. Of course, wild theories and rumors were already flying—the Monkeys and Piranhas were really demon dragons who could breathe fire; it was a sign from the Tribe of Endless Hunting; a fallen star had set the Jungle on fire—already cats were beginning to call the forest fire the Blaze.

Even when the two branch-guards returned that morning to tell them what had happened, the name stuck.

"Tribe of Dappled Sunlight!"

Pounce awoke with an especially loud snort, and Windteller sprang to his feet with a yelp. "Its okay, Whisper," Eddy said soothingly. Chest heaving, Windteller looked around wildly.

"He's way too high-strung," Eddy said in an undertone to Raindrop as they trotted towards Leafteller's summons outside of the Cave of Dancing Moonlight, allowing Pounce and Windteller to draw ahead. "Paranoid, you know. He thinks he's gonna die or let every cat down, and the forest fire and several other near-death experiences didn't exactly help."

Raindrop nodded, still a bit cool and distant with Eddy for taking Pounce's side in their quarrel; Raindrop still wasn't speaking to Pounce. "Yeah," she said unhelpfully. Something in her vague tone made Eddy stop walking.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, his voice light and conversational, but his face was grim and he stared hard into her stormy eyes.

"Nothing," said Raindrop, a bit too quickly.

"Come on, Raindrop," said Eddy, "I know you. Why aren't you concerned with Windteller all the sudden?"

"I said '_nothing'_," Raindrop replied coldly. "Let's go." And she led the way out of the cave and into the sunlight where the Tribe was waiting.

* * *

"So," said Pounce loudly as they walked across a huge expanse of rock, "the brilliant plan is to basically—"

"_Shh_!" said Windteller, looking over his shoulder at the knot of to-bes behind them. "Talk quieter!"

"It's not exactly a top-secret plan, you know," replied Pounce sternly. "So the plan's to basically wander until we find someplace to live instead?" she glanced over her shoulder, lowering her voice in spite of herself.

"_Yes," _said Windteller emphatically. "They said—"

"They said the Tribe of Endless Hunting will guide us," Eddy interjected calmly. "And," he dropped his voice so only they could hear, "as they decided we're going to the mountains, I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"What are you—?" began Pounce sharply, but Raindrop interrupted as if she wasn't speaking.

"You heard them at the Telling," mewed Raindrop in a low voice, "if the mountains are whispering too, we ought to go see what that's all about."

Pounce gaped at her tribemate, not registering a single word of their cryptic conversation. "What are you _talking _about?" she demanded.

"Nothing that concerns you," replied Raindrop coldly. Pounce glared at her.

"What about those monkey things? And their piranhas?" said Pounce anxiously, turning to Eddy and Windteller. "Are they gonna kill the whole Jungle?"

"We don't know," said Eddy sadly. "It seems like it. If they started the fire like Monkey and Sunset found, and didn't make any effort to put it out, then it sure seems like the Jungle is at their mercy. It isn't ours anymore. It's theirs. To destroy."

"I still don't see why we couldn't have told them what we heard in the Cave," said Windteller nervously, glancing over his shoulder at the chattering to-bes again.

"_Because_," said Raindrop, trying to sound more certain than she felt, less annoyed, and more like a leader, "if you use _logic, _you would discover that since the prophecy was made, there's no changing it, and since we decided to go to the mountains anyway, it doesn't matter. The prophecies are gonna play themselves out, and telling the world wouldn't do anything about it."

"Yeah, but it couldn't hurt to tell—" began Windteller again. Eddy cut across him as Raindrop began to bristle angrily.

"Give it a rest, will you?" he sighed.

Silence fell between them. The mountains, blue in the hazy, humid distance, rose like spikes into the cloudy sky. The stone they walked across reflected the cloudy gray above them. The tribe moved slowly along, a line like a dark brushstroke on the dreary stone landscape. The wind was light and cool, dancing between the cats occasionally, breaking the humid, muffled silence. Birds of prey wheeled above them as the sky became steadily darker as if waiting for one of the cats to break ranks and fall to the ground.

Over the next few days, the muffling humidity didn't lift, pressing them from all sides like heavy, suffocating, water, nor did the gray clouds above them, darkening steadily over the mountains and the rocky plateaus like an omen. The mountains too seemed to grow taller as they approached.

By the third day of walking, the whole tribe was exhausted, their throats parched, and they were all starving. No one knew how to hunt out here, used to the cover of the Jungle and the noise that protected them from being spotted by their prey. Out here, you had to be as silent as a shadow and approach from behind. On the second day, the to-bes learned the first lesson of hunting out on the bare rock: use prey to lure prey.

The mouse scratched doubtfully among the roots of a tiny, withered tree that was growing in a thin crevice. Eddy and Pounce, one on each side, crept up behind the tree as silently as they could. Neither of them had had a thing to eat since the morning before, and both were growing desperate. They padded at a maddeningly slow pace to avoid being heard, but the mouse suddenly raised its nose, sniffing. All three of them froze. Eddy and Pounce, pressed up against the gnarled tree, heard a _whoosh, _and a huge black eagle dove down snatching at the mouse. It darted away, but not fast enough.

"Get the eagle!" yowled Pounce, struck with a sudden inspiration. Raindrop, who'd been watching, charged over to help. Together, she, Pounce, and Eddy leapt onto the bird's back. They were small enough to get onto its back without completely tipping over, and as they clawed their way towards the base of its neck, it let out a horrible screech, and took off.

Pounce screamed, Eddy gave a strangled yell, and Raindrop gasped. The eagle flapped its wings furiously, and they lifted clumsily off the ground, hovering several tail-lengths above the stone. Pounce was whimpering, Eddy was staring straight ahead with his eyes popping out, but Raindrop gaped, her heart pounding as they glided just above the ground, the wind whooshing in her fur, the muffling humidity lifted, her heart soaring with the eagle's wings. It pumped furiously, trying to stay airborne, and as it leaned one way to turn towards the other tribe cats, Raindrop leaned the other way to stay balanced.

The eagle curved its wing tips, turning gracefully in a circle, before diving straight for the cats a few feet below.

"Look _out!" _screeched Raindrop.

"_HELP!" _screamed Pounce.

The cats below scattered, all but a small kit, who stumbled after his mother, mewling pitifully. With a suddenly stiffened resolve, Raindrop stretched her paw forward and brought her claws down on the base of the eagle's neck. It crumpled just as they were about to hit the ground.

Legs shaking, hearts pounding uncontrollably, Pounce and Eddy got off the eagle's back. With a glance back at the tree where they'd lifted off briefly, just a few tail-lengths away, they walked dazedly over to comfort the little kit. Raindrop followed, with a glance back at the eagle.

_Thank you, _she thought as the first raindrops of the storm began to fall, and for just a second she thought she felt a whoosh above her head like a wingbeat.

And the dark clouds that had hovered above them for so long began to rain like tears falling on the stone below.

**Sorry it's been so long, I was working on my other stories, but I'll be focusing a lot more on this one now. Hope you liked it! -Mo0ny**


	9. Chapter 8: Swallowing Darkness

**_Chapter 8: _Swallowing Darkness**

Raindrop opened her eyes blearily. She gasped.

She was standing on a cliff, high in the mountains. The narrow rocky ledge beneath her gave way to a canyon of darkness that didn't appear to have an end. Above her stretched an endless dome of gray sky; huge birds were circling above her. A fierce cold wind howled like someone yowling in the canyon.

"Hey Raindrop!"

Raindrop whirled around and tipped dangerously. There on the ledge was another cat. But it was just a shadow. The shape of a cat was rippling, as if taking form. Behind her, hazy shadows like smoke were forming into more cats, and beneath them a ledge was rippling into existence. Part of her panicked brain registered that this had to be a dream, but Raindrop wasn't paying attention other brain right then.

"Raindrop! Lighten up!"

Raindrop stared at the cat behind her, squinting. She could almost make out who it was... Suddenly there was an echoing _crack._

The ledge was breaking.

With a yowl, the cat behind her scrambled forward, clawing at the ledge where Raindrop stood, trying to stay on solid ground. But suddenly Raindrop couldn't move. She wanted to cry out, but she couldn't. She wanted to help her tribemate, but she couldn't. Raindrop wanted to save her, but she couldn't.

With a cry of terrible fear, Pounce tumbled into the darkness.

* * *

_And the darkness will swallow... _

She woke up with a jolt, the cry from her dream still ringing in her ears.

The tribe slept around her, their breathing like a light wind. The shallow crevice the gnarled tree grew in had served as their sleeping place that night, guards posted in shifts by the edges as the rain poured down. Lightning split the sky with a crackling thunderclap. Several cats jumped and awoke with yelps, and Windteller sat bolt upright beside her.

"What happened?" he gasped, looking around.

"Nothing," Raindrop replied quietly. The rain had stopped, but it sounded like another storm was coming. The dark clouds rising behind the mountains said as much. Raindrop stared into the distance, praying her dream was only a dream. Pounce couldn't die! Even if Raindrop wasn't speaking to her, she wasn't going to let the bouncy to-be _die. _And what had been the point of Pounce's figure being an only a silhouette? The distant thunder growled again.

Raindrop's mind wandered from possibility to possibility, meandering along the ideas that cluttered her mind. She was still thinking about the eagle the day before. Riding it for just a few heartbeats had been amazing, and though it had tried to kill that kit, and that the tribe had spent an unusually well-fed evening thanks to it, Raindrop couldn't help but feel a certain sense of gratitude towards it for that flight. She understood now. One of the lines in the prophecy had mentioned flying. She couldn't remember the exact words, but she remembered enough.

Suddenly her mind stumbled across a distracting idea: what if the vagueness of Pounce's figure had something to do with the way Raindrop _saw _her—maybe, maybe Raindrop didn't see Pounce as what she really was. Maybe she never could. Maybe, if this nightmare came true, she never _would. _Maybe she wouldn't see Pounce for who she was until it was too late.

Another thunderclap split the still air again, ringing ominously across the stone plateau like an echo of Raindrop's thoughts.

* * *

"Raindrop?"

Pounce peered tentatively around Raindrop's flank, looking anxious.

"What?" she asked, her voice harsher than she'd intended.

"_Sorry_," said Pounce, looking reproachful but with a note of sarcasm in her voice. "Didn't mean to disturb your deep thoughts. _I _just wanted to talk to you about your brother, but obviously you have _much _more important things to do."

Raindrop glared at her. "That's _not _what I said," she snapped, now angry herself. "Don't just _assume_ what I'm going to say or do next because you think you know me, because you obviously _don't_!"

Pounce glared back. There was a time where she would have quelled under Raindrop's ferocious glare, but those days had long passed. Pounce was growing up, becoming her own spirit.

This realization hit Raindrop like a blow in the chest. With a suffocating feeling, she felt her hear sink. She didn't _like _growing up, not her, not anyone, because it always meant changes for the more serious and just changes in general. And if Pounce was growing up, that meant that Raindrop really _didn't _know her.

Pounce hissed softly and whipped around, stalking off to walk with Windteller and Eddy, leaving Raindrop alone, again.

Raindrop hoped with all her heart she was imagining the haziness of Pounce's outline.

* * *

The wind howled in the canyon below them. It seemed to stretch down for an eternity, gaping blackness that went on forever.

"_HELP!"_

The scream split the air, echoing in Raindrop's ears. Again, she watched Pounce's silhouette tumble into the unforgiving blackness without ever even taking form.

Raindrop awoke with a start, her heart still pounding, her ears still ringing.

The tribe was sleeping around her. They were sheltering in a shallow cave at the base of the mountains. They would begin the climb that day.

A huge canyon split the mountains apart, but it wasn't the one from her dream, to her relief, because it had a thundering river going through it.

A thin path twisted between the boulders and sheer walls of the mountain, and it was this trail they followed. It was a steep exhausting path, but the Tribe was accustomed to climbing trees to get around, so this was not _too_ difficult... Only the pebbles that got stuck between their pads, the thin cold air of the approaching Winter, and the constant wind howling in their ears were bothersome...

...They were miserable.

Except Raindrop. After a long day of climbing, Raindrop was the only cat who was still full of energy. The wind so wild and free, the air so light and the ground so solid, and they were so close to the sky, Raindrop felt energy pumping through her, her heart lifting with every gust of wind, the clouds just above her ears...

She'd become a different cat. She too was growing up, but that horrible thought never occurred to her—she was too happy. This was just like flying, soaring here without wings... she was at peace, and this, she had decided, was where she would stay at peace. No wonder, in the Jungle, she had felt so awkward! This was where she belonged. This was amazing.

She forgot about her worries, her tribe's hardships, Windteller's anxiety, her surliness with Pounce, her nightmares, the long twisting path ahead of her that had nothing to do with the rocky trail she was climbing, the path she'd only glimpsed.

_This is home_, she thought, _or it will be one day. _

_One day._


	10. Chapter 9: Nightmares

_**Chapter 9**_**: Nightmares **

They were so high in the mountains now that they'd lost sight of the river in the canyon below. _More like an abyss, _reflected Raindrop. The thin mist shrouded everything around them in hazy darkness, and the cold, sharp wind tore at their throats as they climbed, so that each heartbeat lasted seasons, each step an eternity, each stone that loomed in their path another mountain...

The clouds avove them were stony gray, often sending dsown spikes of lightning and trhin, miserable drizzles that reflected the Tribe's feelings as the days wore on... two days of climbing... three days... the canyon only got deeper, and the birds of prey wheeling above them only got lower.

The first shock was when one of the kits died. Out of nowhere, as they began to descend the other side of the mountain, a huge eagle soared down and seized Ripple's tiny she-kit in its talons. Hunger and long cold nights had weakened Ripple's son, and finally, on the morning of the fourth day of climbing, he too did not wake up. Sky, who was heavily pregnant, began to worry about her kits, and both Feather and Ripple grieved terribly. The whole Tribe felt their pain—without kits, they would not continue.

No cat wanted to think about the fact that continuing seemed impossible in the first place.

Slowly, they learned how to hunt stealthily, silently, waiting for one of the birds of prey to swoop down... But they were all growing thin, lean and rank, tired and hopeless, the only bright spot on the horizon each night, to sleep and escape the tired, hopeless, grey world around them.

Raindrop alone dreaded the nights and enjoyed the days. Climbing the mountain was like flying, but sleeping was a nightmare. Literally. Each night, she climbed higher on the mountain, and each night another cat from her Tribe fell before she even knew who they were... but she recognized them: Pounce, Eddy, Windteller, Leafteller, Leap, Mist...

She was changing from her surly, withdrawn self to the only hopeful cat in the Tribe. The dark shadows under her eyes did not betray the shadows that haunted her cold nights, but she leapt from rock to rock like a natural, helping kits along, talking to the kit-mothers who had lost theirs, encouraging to-bes she'd never even spoken to, and offering to stand guard when they spent restless nights in shallow caves.

"She's not a to-be," said Mist in an undertone to her sister as Raindrop helped up a kit and gently helped him on his way. "She's a branch-guard."

"not a branch-guard anymore, Mist," replied Leap sadly. "a stone-guard, maybe. Or a cave-guard."

Raindrop turned her head slightlky, hearing their words and swelling with pride. Mist wasn't _so_ bad, was she...? And she liked the sound of that...

'_Cave-guard'..._Raindrop found herself climbing through the cobwebs of morning mist, the steep side of the mountain they were derscending disappearing rather fast from beneath her paws. The pebbles skittered dangerously, and the dew of morning made the deacent much more perilous than the ascwent. And they still had a llong way to go—the river's canyon was still a bottomlewss abyss.

* * *

A curve around a boulder, and there was the ravine itself, as black and unforgiving as ever, folds of mist swirling up through it. Raindrop watched her leader pad along the familiar, narrow ledge, her eyes as dull and hopeless as the sky above them. She let Eddy and Windteller pass her, but then trotted after them, not letting Pounce by. The prey-hunter to-be hissed softly, but let Raindrop pass.

The silence seemed to echo around them, each moment stretched out. that suited Raindrop just fine. Another hopeless night was the last thing she needed: along that familiar ledge, watching her Tribemate disappear into the darkness below...

She moved along at a fast, easy pace, the terrain nothing difficult, except for trying to avoid death. A glance ahead shoewd her that the ledge was lost in mist, seeming never to end. The harder she squinted, she could make out more details of the ledge... a pebble here, a rock therew, a crack, a twist in the path, a dip in the wall beside it...

A glasnce behind her showed the aame story—a bleak, hopeless trail that reflected the feelings of the cats walking on it. The mist kept everything in shadow, as if it wasn't really there, just beyond a veil...

Raindrop watched Pounce's shadowy figure, walking slightly apart from the group, without really paying attention until she tripped on a crack in the middle of the path.

"Raindrop!" gasped Pounce behind her. She fell on her side, her heart thumping. Shaking, Raindrop regained balance amd kept walking.

Suddenly there was an echoing _crack_.

And the ledge broke.

Pounce screamed, and Raindrop whirled around. The stone had crumbled and fallen away from the crack in the path.

Pounce leapt forward, clawing at the ledge where Raindrop stood.

But suddenly Raindrop couldn't move.

_Again and again, _she thought. _I'm going to live this again and again until they all die._

Unable to help her friend, Raindrop stared helplessly as Pounce tumbled into the mist. It swirtled around her, like smoke clearing.

In a heatbeat, she was gone again. Suddenly Raindrop found her voice. The world stamped back into focus around her.

The howling wind—the screaming birds—Pounce's screaming cry—the voices of her tribe around her—

Raindrop squeezed her eyes shut.

They snapped open.

She was still on the ledge.

She waited to wake from her nightmare.

_She never did. _


	11. Chapter 10: Omen

_**Chapter 10: **_**Omen**

She tumbled through the folds of mist, her own cries echoing around the canyon. The darkness pulled her down, reaching like cold claws, into her heart, dragging her down where no cat could reach her—

Her tribe was silhouetted against the dimly lit mountainside, and she looked at them, she knew all their names, would miss all of them terribly, she realized, as the mist drew her too far down to see Rock's square shouldered form, Eddy's calm smile, her mother's soft eyes, Leafteller's powerful figure, Whisper's thin, nervous frame... Whisper...

She knew, even as the darkness closed her eyes, as the wind whipping silently past her became silent, as starry figures circled around her. She knew she wasn't a to-be anymore.

She'd grown up. And then she'd died, not even nobly, just by accident.

And she knew she'd miss every one of the cats she was leaving behind.

Even Raindrop.

* * *

"Pounce_! Pounce!" _Windteller screamed. The other tribe cats were crying out, calling, but none of the sounded as agonized as Windteller.

Eddy stared down at where his cousin had been just heartbeats before, his eyes as wide as the full moon.

And Raindrop stood there, swaying. She felt like she was falling too. _Those dreams weren't nightmares. They were omens, _she realized with a shock like a boulder rolling into her.

It was her fault. She hadn't paid attention to them.

Now Pounce was really gone.

How many other lives would the mountains claim?

**Author's note**

**Sorry its short, but I'm finishing this story up, there's only going to be about two more chapters. I have a lot of homework, projects, after-school stuff, ect., and a bunch of other stories I'd like to start or wrap up. This is one of the second category. I hope I didn't start to bore you, or scare you away with my un-grammatical last chapter (sorry, I forgot to edit!) I'll be fixing that about now. Please review if you have any suggestions for a stronger story or something, help is always welcome! **

**Smiles,  
Mo0ny **


	12. Chapter 11: Travel

_**Chapter 11: **_**Travel**

Raindrop walked across the plateau, her pads aching. No wind swept her thoughts and worries away here. It was hot, humid and sticky, muffling everything, making the horizon shimmer like it wasn't really there, just an illusion.

They had lost two prey-hunters last night, to the heat and dryness. There was no water here. They all knew it. They were fighting a losing battle. None of the kits were left alive, and Sky had died giving birth to kits that lasted only the night. There was no hope left. All they were looking for was water. A place to rest.

Mist stumbled, tripping over her own paws, and without a thought, Raindrop drew back to steady her. Mist stood up straight and looked right into Raindrop's abashed but earnest eyes. Raindrop met her gaze evenly, peacefully, but hopelessly.

Without a word, they continued along their journey side by side.

* * *

A thin, wailing cry rose eerily in the night. Raindrop opened her eyes slowly. A single cat sat on watch, wailing at the sky. The stars shone only dimly, and there was no moon. They'd been walking for more than a moon. There had been no Telling.

Even though the didn't know what was wrong, whether they had just lost hope or lost someone, Raindrop couldn't help thinking,

_Another cat down._

* * *

There were stones lined up, each one unnaturally square. From where they sat on the hill, lapping water in their parched throats, it looked like bugs swarming in and out of it. Rock, Leafteller, and Windteller were talking quietly by the banks, deciding what to do next. To Raindrop and Eddy's surprise, Pounce's death (which Raindrop still refused blankly to talk about) had made Windteller stronger, braver and more willing to prove himself.

He was strong enough to be everything Pounce had been.

Raindrop walked over to listen to their conversation.

"... May be some prey down there," Leafstar was saying.

"But what _is_ it? Its like square mountains or something," Windteller pointed out. "If we don't know what's down there, we shouldn't take the risk."

"What if it would save the tribe from _dying_ of starvation?" demanded Rock, glaring. Raindrop could tell all he wanted was food.

"And what if it would kill us all off?" countered Windteller. "We don't know, and under the circumstances, with the tribe to weak to lift a claw to defend themselves, I don't think it's a good idea to take them into unfamiliar territory for something that might not even be _there."_

"Isn't that what this 'journey' is all about?" hissed Rock nastily. "Wandering aimlessly to look for something that isn't there?"

"What that isn't there?" interjected Raindrop. "A home? A place to go? Is _that_ what you mean?" she challenged.

"No," replied Rock scathingly, "I meant hope."

* * *

Desert sun scorched their backs, the dust making them cough and squint. One of the few to-bes left walked into a large, green plant that had tiny claws sticking out of it and they spent a long time getting them all out. Bushed rolled by on slight winds, and vultures circled overhead.

The hazy horizon was the only place they saw hope. It was a mark of how bad the journey was going that the large and prosperous tribe had become a little knot of starving cats whose only beacon of hope was the dark spot in the dust.

It was a mark of their hopelessness that they were actually looking forward to getting there.

To the next mountains.

* * *

There were only a few cats left when they reached the mountains. Some had given up and stopped walking. Others had left in their sleep, slipping quietly away to the Tribe of Endless Hunting. A few had been lost to the heat, lain down in the desert and decided not to move again.

Only Eddy, Raindrop, Windteller, Leafteller, Rock, Mist, Leap, Dewdrop, Wing, Fire and Monkey were left. They stood at the base of the mountains, and watched the stars. The air was cooler here, the stars brighter, and the wide river reminded Leafteller so much of the one in the Jungle that it made her heart ache.

Together, they lowered their heads and prayed to the Tribe of Endless Hunting to keep them safe and together and to guide the cats they had lost safely to the stars.

Raindrop tipped her head back and looked at the stars, feeling calm and hopeful for the first time in moons. They could make it if they tried.

Maybe they had a chance after all.


	13. Chapter 12: Among the Mountains

**Author's note:  
****I hope you haven't given up hope on this because it's gotten so depressing and slow, but this chapter has some dialogue much longer than "hi" and "bye" and some real action.  
And for the Tribe, things are looking up. (And... Review? Please?)**

_**Chapter 12:**_** Among the Mountains**

The wind howled. The wind whispered. The wind blew overhead and underfoot. It was always there. And in a world where everyone and everything she knew was disappearing, Raindrop needed something that would never change.

High in the mountains, the wind sang like their freedom, no rules or restrictions, nothing predictable, nothing you could understand, nothing anyone was trying to bend into the Tribe's 'well-organized' life. They were hardly a tribe anymore. They were little more than a knot of cats bound by tradition and acquaintance. And grief.

Raindrop didn't trudge up the slope, her paws dragging, her tail brushing the ground. She bounded. She _understood_ the mountains. And, as far as she could tell, they understood her. As long as they were here, there was hope. For her, anyway. She just hoped the mountains would take them to a sheltered peak or someplace they could stay. Somewhere they could all understand.

The group had finally learned how to hunt consistently in the mountains, and they'd actually gotten good at it. The days became blurs of gray; gray stone, gray peaks, gray skies, gray clouds. Reasonably well-fed, well-rested, and aimless, the group wandered with no real purpose anymore than to stay alive. Then came the day.

It was two days before the fifth full moon of their journey.

* * *

When they awoke that morning, something was different.

The wind smelled... damp. But fresh. It smelled of rain. But that was normal.

It was a clear sky above them. Blue with downy white clouds. That wasn't strange.

The birds seemed to be singing. Not cawing or shrieking. But that wasn't unheard of.

The wind smelled fresh. Fresh, damp, new and green, growing, living, life. That was.

They were coming near a forest.

Raindrop led the way as usual, but today the otherfour to-bes were bounding beside her. They were filled with a brimming, happy feeling they didn't dare call hope. The stones seemed to move away beneath their paws with ridiculous ease, and even the old, exhausted guards and prey-hunters moved faster: they didn't want to get their hopes up, but it was hard not to.

"What do you think it _is?" _asked Fire, glancing over his shoulder at Monkey, who was lagging behind for a drink from a spring.

"What do you think _what _is?" asked Monkey vaguely, mostly to annoy his friend.

"You _know _what I mean," replied Fire, exasperated. "It's weird, like the whole spirit has changed, or something. Everyone's excited, but nobody says anything, and the smell... it's like our Jungle was, and the sky's all clear, and the birds are singing instead of, like, screaming and eating us. It smells... so..."

"Green," Monkey finished for him, "yeah, I know. Maybe we're getting close."

"We definitely are," agreed Fire, stopping at an overlookof sweeping green hills and forest, "but to what?"

* * *

"_Whoa_."

Windteller gaped at the dip in the landscape. The trees swished, there were birds fluttering around, and in the distance, a lake glittered diamond-bright.

"It's _amazing," _Eddy whispered, awestruck.

"Yeah," agreed Fire, "it seriously is." He was swelling with pride at being the first to see what they had been searching for, for so long.

"But..." said Raindrop, who had lagged behind to be sure they all made it, coming up between Eddy and Windteller, "it's... well, it sure isn't a jungle."

"But it's a forest," Fire argued.

"How do you know?" countered Raindrop.

"Well, it's green and full of _plants,_" Fire said exasperatedly. "What else could it _be?_"

"We don't know," Raindrop mewed solemnly. "We've seen so many strange things on this journey, who's to say this isn't the same? Just a new part of the world we'd never seen?"

"Well..." Fire looked lost.

"It... but... wait, guys," Eddy said slowly, sounding slightly afraid, "am I just crazy, or does this look... well, kind of feel... familiar?"

"You're crazy," Monkey assured him, then stopped to think. "But then again—"

"He's... not... crazy..." said Raindrop, her voice slow and full of terror. "We _have_ been here. I swear... Don't tell me... we did _not_ go in a _complete_ _circle_."

They all fell silent.

Their hope went out like a candle in a hurricane. _"No way," _growled Windteller. "There is _no way _we lost _half_ _the Tribe _to go in a _circle!"_ His face was screwed up like he wanted to throw himself off the mountain.

"No—it's—that's _impossible!" _meowed Fire, nearly wailing. "I'll—I'll _show _you, it's a forest, but it's not the Jungle! I _swear_! We _haven't_ been here before! Even look!"

"Fire, _no_!" yelped Monkey, but it was too late.

Fire leapt towards the forest below them, over the lip of the stone they were standing on. But there wasn't any stone beneath that.

With a cry, he tumbled over the edge.

"Fire!" howled Monkey, diving for the edge. Raindrop, who was rather experienced in these situations, lunged over, paws out as the other twostood stunned.

Her claws slashed the empty air below the cliff, and she let out an angry, helpless yowl. But Monkey yelled something garbled that sounded like "Yes!" and "Fire!" and "Help!" all at once. She twisted over to help him, her unsheathed claws swatting the air, her head facing at the sky. Her paw found a mass of twisting fur, and she sank her claws into it.

Monkey reached his other paw down to adjust his grip on Fire's scruff, who was flailing in terror. "Stop _spazzing_!" he yelled angrily as Raindrop rolled over to get a better hold on the fallen to-be. She beckoned impatiently at Windteller and Eddy, who hadtrouble keeping their heads in these situations, to help.

Together, they managed to heave him back up over the ledge. By then, their other tribemates had arrived, amazed by the sight of the forest.

"And so then I said... _whoa,_" Rock was saying, stopping in the middle of the footpath to gape at the view. The to-bes were in a heap by the edge, still gasping for breath after their quick adventure.

"What _happened_ to you guys?" demanded Mist. "Was there a _panther_ attack or something?"

"Something like that," Raindrop said.

* * *

"...the best way to get down there will be to go around the long way, since there is no trail for the cliffs. But that's fine, we're in no hurry. We'll get there when we do. It'll be good to be somewhere familiar," Leafteller said. Rock nodded, sitting on her left, and Windteller smiled from her right.

"But..." Fire began uncomfortably, "what's... its weird, everyone says they feel familiar about this place... like the woods and the lake and stuff, so... what if we... went in a big, pointless circle?"

The grown cats all turned to look at him in stunned surprise.

He bent his head in embarrassment. "Nobody else said anything...?" he muttered, glancing at the other to-bes. They returned his stare blankly.

"That," said Leafteller, "would be a catastrophe. To say the least." She beckoned with her tail to the other prey-hunters and guards to follow her into the gathering darkness to discuss this theory.

"Hmph," Monkey muttered irritably. "They always act so superior and experienced like they know what they're talking about and we _don't_. But you guys saw that: they really don't have a plan. They think they're so _smart,_butwould it kill anybody to have some _new _ideas in their all-powerful conference of fate?"

"What do you mean they don't have a plan?" asked Windteller indignatnly. "Of course we do!"

Monkey looked gravely at him. "Maybe I should be healer, not you." Windteller swelled indignantly, but Monkey cut across him. "Couldn't you see the way they gaped at us when Fire said 'what if it was a circle'? They don't know what to think about that. All they can plan ahead to is breakfast tomorrow! They want to _sound _like they have a plan now, but a kit could've come up with that one! 'hey, guys, lets wander around the long way since there's a big cliff in the middle of the shortcut!' I mean _come on!" _

"I thought of that plan!" yelped Windteller, deeply offended.

"What are you suggesting, rebellion?" demanded Raindrop.

"Well anything is better than this!" argued Monkey.

The rest of the to-bes gaped at him.

"That's... you're... no..." Windteller spluttered.

"That's not true,"mewed Raindrop scathingly, feeling unusually touchy. She wasn't going to pretend that she wasn't completely and entirely at home here. "We could be starving. It could be freezing. It could be raining. We could be lost. There could be no forest. It could be winter. Fire could've fallen off that cliff.

"We could all be dead." Raindrop added scornfully. "And you could use your brain. That'd be a _lot_ worse for the rest of us, wouldn't it?"

The moon rose slowly over their group of laughing cats, not too far out of kithood, a small oasis in a dark world all around them.

A little way away from them stood a cluster of anxious cats, wondering what they could do to move forward in the dark world that crushed them from all sides.

And a ways away from them, not as far as one would expect, stood a knot of anxious cats, fearing for their lives and their futures, and the unfulfilled prophecy that had been their leader's parting words.

And the one, same whispering wind wove among them, whispering comfort and to have strength, and bringing with it a scent that made one group raise their heads in hope.

_Theyare coming._


	14. Chapter 13: Clan Over Kin

_**Chapter 13: **_**Clan Over Kin**

So they went. They wandered a whole day, finding little footpaths, winding trails among the boulders. The wind was wild and cool, sweeping across the wide expanses of bare rock as if to wipe away everything on it. Raindrop smiled and faced the wind as it wove through her fur. It was wet and refreshing. Water.

* * *

"You know," Fire said to Raindrop, "I think there's water nearby. Like, a river. A big river. Or a big pool."

"It's called a lake, genius," said Monkey.

"Whatever."

"I think you're right," agreed Raindrop. "The wind feels very cool and..." she trailed off, unable to find the right word, but the two toms understood.

"Hey guys! Guys," said Eddy. He sounded upset. "The grown cats are talking about going into the mountains rather than the woods."

"Why the python would they do that?" demanded Raindrop.

"Because the _forest is unfamiliar_ and they don't know what's in it or _how to avoid any unknown threats_," Eddy quoted angrily. "And Whisper's right there with them! _Why_?"

Raindrop froze in her tracks, her face screwed up with an emotion Eddy couldn't recognize. Monkey and Fire instantly started conspiring to either rebel, protest in some way, or just mutter mutinously for a while. Eddy watched Raindrop stand still, while the rest of their group drew ahead.

"I'll _talk_ to him," she growled finally, and started running. Eddy loped beside her, still watching his tribemate, whose eyes were narrowed and fixed ahead. There was no question as to who she was going to talk to.

"What are you going to say?" Eddy wanted to know.

"Good question," she replied in a threatening growl as they passed the other to-bes.

"I'll come," he offered.

"Thanks," she grunted, clearing a boulder and reaching the planners. Eddy scrambled up the side rock after her as she drew level with the group.

"Hey. Whisper. Can we talk?" Without waiting for an answer from her brother, Raindrop dragged him away by the scruff. Leader he may have been, but she was still twice his size.

"What the—" Whisper began to object, writhing, but Raindrop's expression was set on 'Merciless'.

Eddy watched her from on top of the boulder, uncertainty pulling at his paws. What if they were supposed to stay in the mountains? There were too many questions. And no answers.

* * *

From a few boulders away, the stealthy cats watched as the big skinny to-be watched the two others. He looked lonely, Peregrine decided. She wasn't sure why they were watching this band of loners. They should have been hunting for the rest of the tribe. She was so hungry she would have gladly gone down there and eaten that little to-be the tom on the rock's friend was carrying off. She was too small to be its mother—maybe sister? Curiosity got the better of Peregrine, and slowly she slunk away from the rest of her group of scouts.

They were wrong. There was already enough confusion with no Healer, and adding this little knot of skinny cats who clearly needed help fending themselves to the fray wasn't going to help.

Peregrine didn't believe in prophecies. She didn't believe in spirits or magic or signs and visions and dreams from the stars. She did believe in love, though, and the lonely look on this tom's face was one that she'd recognize anywhere. Peregrine wanted to think that it didn't matter who he was watching, but he was intently watching the she-cat spit her fluffy brother onto the ground and demand answers.

Peregrine decided she wanted answers too, and melted into the boulders' shadows, coming close enough to listen.

* * *

"Alright, Whisper. What the flip is this about?"

"Exactly what I was planning on asking you."

"You know exactly what's going on. You'd better tell me why you and the other brilliant grown cats are planning on keeping us in the mountains."

"Nobody said that—"

Eddy listened, his eyes on Raindrop. She seemed to have it under control, she didn't need help. He didn't think.

Suddenly, something moved behind them.

He stiffened. The rock had moved. Rocks didn't move! Ridiculous. But... what if there was going to be an avalanche?

He started towards them, thinking of so many more reasons to go to the forest, when it moved again. Eddy stopped. The rock wasn't moving. There was someone there.

Listening.

He changed his course and slunk through the stones like a snake until he saw it clearly—a lean she-cat who was exactly the same color gray as the rocks. He narrowed his eyes and angled up the rocks, his eyes moving from her to his path every few heartbeats.

She was watching the siblings argue, Whisper justifying himself and Raindrop spitting. Her eyes were a leaf-like green that was bright and deep like a pool of water, and they were shifting across the path towards the boulder he had been standing on, her ears still angled towards the bickerers. An expression of confusion crossed her shadowed face, as if someone had forgotten or tricked her.

Eddy crept stealthily up the rocks until he was just above the green-eyed cat, eyes narrowed. What was she doing? She was sitting in a crevice, her head and upper body on the ledge in front of her, blending almost perfectly. Without thinking, Eddy found himself planning an attack—and then he crouched and pounced.

The lonely tom had gone, and Peregrine couldn't see him anywhere. But the tom's friend and her brother were getting louder.

"This forest is possibly the only chance we have of survival! Why would we pass it up?" the she-cat demanded.

"We know the mountains and we are sure they are a secure place to stay! That forest, on the other hand, could have unidentifiable poisons in it or threats we are not prepared for! The mountains, we understand! We can survive in them! And... Raindrop, I thought you liked the mountains anyway."

She flicked her head back towards them in surprise at the change in the brother's tone. The cat named Raindrop looked taken aback too.

"I—" she paused, staring off. Her brother, Whisper, stared at her.

"Say what you mean," he said. "Then it might make sense." She turned back to him, her expression distant and confused. "For a change," he added.

"I just... Feel like... we need to do what's best for the Tribe. Not for me."

He stared.

"I think... since there's so few of us left—" her voice broke "—then we should all have a say. And not just you guys."

Peregrine was very confused now. So they were a tribe? A pretty skimpy tribe if you asked her. And the 'you guys' part? _What_? That fluffball was half her size, how was he the boss?

"Raindrop... I voted mountains because you seemed much happier here, much happier than in the forest. In the Jungle you were always in a bad mood, but here you help everyone and lead the way instead of lagging. I'd love the familiarity of leaves and trees that we can climb in and prey we understand, but I don't mind it and I like it when you're happy. And you don't keep snarling at us."

His sister stared at him. She seemed to have lost the ability to speak. "I think that you... need to..." Inspiration seemed to strike her and she snapped at her brother— "Whisper, you have no idea how much I appreciate the gesture, but great chimpanzees why? _Why_? If you think the forest is better, then that's where the tribe should go! I'm not more important than all these other cats you're going to lead someday! You already told us Leafteller was on her last life! For python's sake, if you're going to lead it you have to get yourself together! No emotional baggage! No looking back! Future and the present, that's all a leader needs to worry about!

"And I'm not going to be around to give you pep talks forever! You're gonna have nine lives, you have to get it together! What's best for the tribe and nothing else! If the tribe has to eat me for dinner, then you will not stop them, you understand?! Look at me! I've been head of the to-bes because they're all scared and because I only worry when I have to and I decide decisively! I stick to it! And I don't choose by my sibling temper meter!"

It was Whisper's turn to stare.

Peregrine decided she rather liked this Raindrop character.

Not only that, but—

He landed on top of her with a muffled shriek and had her pinned down before she could protest. "What are you doing here?" Eddy demanded, his claws at her neck.

"Whhaa?" she said in a strangled 'please—give—me—air' kind of voice.

"Why are you spying on them?" he wanted to know.

"Just—curious—" she gasped. "Please—can't—breathe—"

"Oh, sorry," Eddy said quickly, getting up. He still hulked himself over her, fluffing his fur out as far as possible to let her breathe and still seem threatening,. She gasped the air back into her lungs, sitting slowly up.

"I'm... part of another tribe," she explained breathlessly. "I'm Peregrine's Shadow on Icy Stone. Peregrine."

"Eddies of Rushing River," he replied, dipping his head. "Eddy."

"Where are you guys from? Not the mountains."

"Really, really far away," he replied. "In this huge forest where all the trees are so high that the leaves are as big as me and you can hardly see the ground from camp. And there are giant snakes and a gigantic river and huge cats, and a waterfall, and it rains all the time—"

"Like a Sharpclaw?" she said eagerly. "I was just a kit when it came, but in our tribe there was a giant cat who came and ate us. We have a big waterfall too. That's where we live."

"In water?" Eddy recoiled. His namesake had nothing to do with him.

"No, behind it."

"Oh," he replied. There was a pause. "Do you know anything about the woods over there?" he pointed his tail hopefully towards them.

"Oh, not really," Peregrine answered. "The cats who saved us from Sharpclaw went there after they stayed with us for a little while. But they weren't tribe cats."

"There are already cats in there?" Eddy's heart sank.

"Were you going there?"

"Weren't you listening to them?"

"Yeah... but it seems weird for a tribe cat to live in the woods."

"It seems weirder to us for tribes to live in mountains," Eddy countered.

"Either way, it still—" Peregrine began, but a low birdcall interrupted her. "Oh, shoot, I have to go. Bye. Good luck to your tribe." She was standing up, and Eddy followed suit. "Ours has issues too, a prophecy and everything. I should tell my—"

"A prophecy? So do we! What are you—"

"I have to go, seriously," she said, looking regretful as another birdcall came. "I'd love to talk, but..."

"What? Do you speak bird or something?" asked Eddy.

"No, that's the returning call for me, I gotta go. The prey-hunters all use it to call the group back together. You guys don't have one? Are you a prey-hunter or cave-guard?" Peregrine asked, glancing back as she began to clamber out of the little crevice.

"Hunter," he replied. "We don't have any calls, no."

"Well, it was good to meet you," she said, "Your friend Raindrop sure seems energetic, and—" she reached the top and stood up, looking down at him, "—I wish you luck in your quest. Bye."

"Bye," replied Eddy, and Peregrine bounded off, her tail waving.

* * *

"So Whisper convinced them to try the woods?"

"With a little help from Eddy," Raindrop confirmed, lying down on a rock that was still a bit warm from the long-gone sunlight. "He says he thinks he saw cats down there and that maybe we could ask them about the woods."

"What, you don't believe him?" Monkey said shrewdly with a nod towards the sleeping lump of fur that was their friend, dozing in the shadows of a gigantic boulder. Whisper was asleep next to him, and night fell around them.

"I don't know," replied Raindrop. "He seemed... weird."

"Are you saying he made up the cat story to convince Whisper to convince them to let us down there?" demanded Monkey.

"No," replied Raindrop irritably, "I'm saying that in the first place, Whisper was already convinced by _me—_I yelled at him about tribe before kin and then he told me he only voted mountains because I liked them, and he wanted to go to the forest, and then Eddy's story was just further argument for our side."

"But you don't believe him."

"Well, let's face it," she replied, "Eddy's never been a very good liar."

"Definitely true," amended Monkey, "He's way too mellow to be convincing."

"Yeah," agreed Raindrop and Fire. There was a long, peaceful pause.

"The forest must be further down than it looks," said Fire doubtfully, "'cause it looks really small."

"Maybe it is small," said Monkey.

"Or young," put in Raindrop.

"That too."

"Or both," suggested Fire.

"Possible," agreed Monkey. "Maybe around here trees are different than in the Jungle."

"Yeah," said Raindrop with a slight purr, "Like everything else."


End file.
